Eight minutes on BlackBerry, Android apps and piracy ...

We had an interesting discussion on our most recent podcast about the rise of unofficial app stores that make it easy for BlackBerry devices to download and install Android apps.

To be clear, we're not talking about downloading directly from BlackBerry World — which requires Android developers to convert their APK file to a BAR, signed, sealed and delivered — but these sort of gray-market (if not outright black) options for sideloading Android apps that either worm their way into Google Play's repository, or out-and-out steal the APKs for their own use.

That last one may be the worst offender so far. I shouldn't be able to directly download my own app from some place I never submitted it to.

It's definitely something that needs to be discussed. So let's break out that portion of the podcast into an easy-to-digest 8-minute segment, shall we?

And we're not exactly turning a blind eye toward piracy on Android proper, either, folks. It's a huge problem for developers. If you steal apps — free or otherwise — you are an asshole. Please don't steal apps. Don't be an asshole.

Oh, and it's also worth noting that at the time we recorded this live, we all completely forgot that BlackBerry has updated its Android runtime to work with more apps — including the Android Central app. So we'll be submitting it to BlackBerry World, where we have no doubt it'll become the most popular app BlackBerry has ever seen.